Posted on 09/27/2005 2:20:21 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
Iran has informed India that the five-million-tonne a year Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export deal, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2009 for a 25-year period, is off. This was conveyed to Indian officials in Vienna soon after the anti-Iran vote cast on Saturday by New Delhi in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) governing board.
In a communication to the Prime Minister's Office and South Block dated September 24, India's Permanent Representative in Vienna, Sheelkant Sharma, wrote that his Iranian counterpart had told him the LNG deal, signed between the two sides in June, was off.
The Iranian Ambassador in Vienna came up to Dr. Sharma after India's vote and conveyed a message from Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, that Teheran was no longer willing to go ahead with the $21-billion deal.
With this, India's energy security has suffered a major blow. The June agreement was considered a good deal for India; in the variable component of the price formula the Brent price of crude was capped at $31 a barrel.
In September, during External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's visit to Iran, India was told that the deal was through and that permission from the National Iranian Oil Company board would be forthcoming.
The External Affairs Ministry spokesman told presspersons on September 3 that Iran was considering an additional 2.5 million tonnes of LNG a year being sought by India. On September 2, Mr. Larijani said in Teheran: "The issue of exporting LNG to India has been finalised."
On Monday, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, asked whether India's vote against Iran would affect the country's energy security, said, "I see no reason why there should be ... any kind of impact on our energy security."
In Teheran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed surprise on Tuesday at the manner in which India had voted. He said: "Iran will revise these [economic] relations, and these countries [that voted against Teheran in the IAEA] will suffer. Our economic and political relations are coordinated with each other."
This is Both Good & Bad News
Just wait till these Ayatollah mofos get all nuked up. Then they'll really be able to say F U.
I wonder how a peace treaty with Iran would be honored? Makes ya wonder. Bottom line, they can't be trusted.
Related story:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1492279/posts
Yet another reason for India and the US to get closer. If I were Putin I would start rethinking any future deals with the Mullahs because they might not be around that much longer.
Got it!
I wonder if Germans & French learned anything over Iraq or not?
They seem to repeat the same mistake over IRAN now!
There's other countries in the Gulf to get methane from. Arab governments often negotiate quietly, and no way they want Iran to have the bomb. A possibility is they offered to replace Iran for support against Iran:
Example?
September 26-
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050926/3/27xm6.html
"India to import Qatari LNG for Dabhol power plant
NEW DELHI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - India plans to import one million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year from Qatar to restart the mothballed Dabhol power plant, an oil ministry official told Reuters on Monday.
"From the middle of 2006, we will import one million tonnes a year for Dabhol," said the official, who did not want to be named.
The plant, built by Enron Corp., has been shut since May 2001 after a billing dispute with its sole customer -- the state-run electricity board of the western state of Maharashtra.
Officials say they hope to restart the plant next year as all legal disputes have been resolved. "
India has no real need to be concerned. Long before 2009, the mullah's nuclear ambitions will have forced our hand, and there will be a new government running Iran. With any luck, enough of Irans infrastructure will have been rebuilt by then to resume this gas deal.
India has long wanted to firm up its gas supplies. It has been negotiating it seems like forever a gas line from Iran that would either (a) go offshore aroun Pakistan or (b) go across Pakistan. It seems I read recently that Pakistan had recently agreed to host the pipeline.
For a long time India was pursuing the notion of an undersea line from Oman across to mainland India, but that never went anywhere.
They had pursued building a pipeline from Central Asia, across the tip of China, into India. This is an alternate route to the earlier Afghan pipeline that never happened, which they had hoped would reach across Pakistan into India.
They need to do some serious wildcatting of their own, I think.
Looks like the mullahs played their blackmail card!
How so? I don't see a down side to this...
the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed surprise on Tuesday at the manner in which India had voted. He said: "Iran will revise these [economic] relations, and these countries [that voted against Teheran in the IAEA] will suffer. Our economic and political relations are coordinated with each other."
India opened more doors than it just closed on Iran. Now Iran is left to stroke its bloated ego with its South American mistress, Venezuela. Isolating Iran is a good thing! Developing stronger ties with the great nation of India is an even greater thing! Indian officials are in for a bumpy ride while they explain this very independent decision to the Indian people but it was the right thing to do, on all counts. The Indians that disagree can either suck it up or begin their migration to Iran. I'm sure the Supreme leader will open his arms to them... Oh yeah that's right, I almost forgot how racist some Iranians can be toward Indians. Stop everything, cancel the migration. We can't have any more hate crimes on the streets of Tehran. There are too many going on there as it is!
Seriously, what's the down side here?
Well shouldn't they also punish those who also didn't take their side and cast abstentions? So much for taking a stand.
"Long before 2009"
EXACTLY... You beat me to it....
They woulda been nuts to do anything else, given the benefits of the USA vs those, such as they were of, Iran.
But, then again, there are those who view a close IndiaUS relationship as anathema. Check out Praful Bidwai's(antiwar.com) recent articel bemoaning the end of the NonAlignedPrinciples(!!!OY!!!) of India's foreign policy and the "poodling" of India. There hasn't been a NAM for a while as far as I tell anyway.
The pipeline thru Pakistan sounded like nothing more than a hashish filled pipe dream.
But, considering this vote, and the deals cut with Qatar and even Saudi, IIRC, the Pakistanis will find themselves a little flummoxed, having bought the pipeline scenario.
Wonder if India seriously ever did, or were simply posturing for geopolitical gain, and their HolyGrail, the legitimization of their nukes.
Witness the recent acquiescence of both the UK and Canada to supply India with nuclear fuel and such. The US Congress's pouting won't affect those relationships, and this vote will help keep India in good stead with Congress.
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